Politics

>VOA>

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney won a major victory Tuesday in Florida’s Republican presidential primary and in the process moved closer to securing his party’s presidential nomination.  

>VOA>

Republican voters are at the polls in Florida on Tuesday casting their ballots for the party's presidential nomination. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is highly-favored in the Florida primary that is expected to be a pivotal contest in the race for the nomination.

>Think Progress> During an interview with Univision, Romney was pressed on whether it was fair for him to pay about 13 percent of his income in taxes — as he did in 2010, according to his recently released tax returns — when many middle class families pay far more. Romney proceeded to claim that his actual rate is “closer to 45 or 50 percent.”

Viewpoint

>Andrew Sullivan> Viewpoint>

The right calls him a socialist, the left says he sucks up to Wall Street, and independents think he's a wimp. Andrew Sullivan on how the president may just end up outsmarting them all. 

>Salon> Dan Sirota> Viewpoint>

We need to ditch the Iowa caucus -- and stop giving Ohio and Florida so much power over our presidential elections.

>truthout> William Rivers-Pitt> Viewpoint>

Let's start here.

The Air Force dumped the incinerated partial remains of at least 274 American troops in a Virginia landfill, far more than the military had acknowledged, before halting the secretive practice three years ago, records show. The landfill dumping was concealed from families who had authorized the military to dispose of the remains in a dignified and respectful manner, Air Force officials said. There are no plans, they said, to alert those families now.

Think about that for a long moment.

>NY Times> Charles M. Blow>

Newt Gingrich has reached a new low, and that is hard for him to do. Nearly two weeks after claiming that child labor laws are "truly stupid" and implying that poor children should be put to work as janitors in their schools, he now claims that poor children don't understand work unless they're doing something illegal.

>Andrew Sullivan> Viewpoint>